A7N8X thread

DMW · SirTweaksabit Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 457

Let's make this the official A7N8X thread instaed of having 6 or 7 different ones all discussing this same board. Sound good? kewl!

Did anyone notice the 120 page "quick set up guide"???
It is as thick as the user's manual!

Kind of funny that each 12 laguages only gets 10 pages (I guess that's their idea of quick)

My MOBO came the otherday and i have been looking this thing over pretty well. Abit and MSI were my last two MOBOs I used since the birth of the Athlon.
Asus has come up with some pretty nice decisions for this board.

Other than making sure it was not DOA...I leaving this board alone till I go through the manual.
Anyone else bother to read it?

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Ishtim · Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 10:14 am Post subject:

I am not sure why they even put the "quick" set up guide when it seems all of the same stuff is in with the other manual. I did look through it before putting my board together but I really think it was intended to be an intro more than a "Setup" guide. It is kinda one of those things you put in the bathroom magazine rack for easy reading while "taking care of business" prior to the assembly process.

If your good you may even pick up on some computer lingo in other languages

_________________
AMD XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.4 (1002.a)
2x 512-PC3200 Mushkin Black
ATI 9800Pro
Klipsch Pro Media
19" CRT

Ishtim · Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 10:15 am Post subject:

I didn't mean to use potty talk, but the "quick" setup guide is useful for mobo layout while you are using the "real" manual for assembly.
_________________
AMD XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.4 (1002.a)
2x 512-PC3200 Mushkin Black
ATI 9800Pro
Klipsch Pro Media
19" CRT

JimBob · TweakNOOB Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Posts: 2

I'm about to buy one of the Deluxe boards as the basis for my new rig. I've used ASUS boards in the last two and like them, but I'm not sure what to think of the embedded sound in this new board.

My gaming is mostly offline and consists of FPS and air combat stuff. I will be adding a decent set of speakers, but frankly sound is not a big deal to me. I use headphones a lot during gameplay and seldom use the CD for music.

Given that scenario, is the onboard sound system offered on the A7N8X likely to be good enough for me?

Thanks,
Jim

Ishtim · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2003 2:03 pm Post subject:

JimBob,
I have had this board (Rev 1.4) for a several months now and really like it. The sound although has given me (as well as others) some problems, but they are fixable! FYI, the newer nForce drivers have been having a few problems so most of us (I have seen on TN) have rolled back to the original mobo (or older) drivers. Seems that nVidia had jumped the gun on releasing "better" drivers for the E3 show, or at least in the same timeframe. There are many bells and whistles on this board and the price seems to be coming down.

I'd make sure that you get a rev 2 board if you are going to use 400FSB processor eve though the rev 1.x boards have BIOS updates to support it.

I would also like to comment on the sheer number of negative A7N8X posts you may read. I believe that most pessimistic (or otherwise negative sounding) posts are made because some type of Newbie mistake (such as some of my first posts), however if you are an Uber Tweaker you may be able to sift through the "yada-yada" and get both pro & con type criticism from the people who actually know there stuff!
_________________
AMD XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.4 (1002.a)
2x 512-PC3200 Mushkin Black
ATI 9800Pro
Klipsch Pro Media
19" CRT

[TN] Nathan · ALMIGHTY PWNER! Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 7406

This board is selling like hotcakes and with the incresed sales number, you are bound to have a more problems. :)
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DMW · SirTweaksabit Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 457

Ishtim · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 11:37 am Post subject:

Any one ever have a prob with crashing to Win XP desktopduring 3D gaming?
Last night I started getting this frequent "crash" to the desktop thing during some BF1942 online play and even a BSOD but it disappeared so fast I couldn't read it. I have had this prob (no BSOD) before but not as frequent as last night. Windows creates one of its cryptic "mini" core dumps and wants to send an error report... Come to find out, it thinks it is a driver issue. So, I rolled back the VGA driver to 41.07 (came with video card) and made DANG sure that all remnants of the 2.4x nForce drivers were gone and reloaded the 2.03 drivers. I only had a few minutes to test after that but it didn't do it again. I will try again this evening and see what happens.

I thought there is a place where alerts and warnings are stored. Do you know if WinXP stores the BSOD messages any where that are accessable to admin?

I apologize if this post should be in a different category...

_________________
AMD XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.4 (1002.a)
2x 512-PC3200 Mushkin Black
ATI 9800Pro
Klipsch Pro Media
19" CRT

[TN] Nathan · ALMIGHTY PWNER! Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 7406

Freezing and lockups will happen on the best computers from time to time. If it becomes a constant probem, then I would worry about it, if not, you have a normal computer.

Gaming really stresses all components on a computer and if only one small tiny hiccup occurs, something will kick out.
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Henchman_00 · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 9:39 pm Post subject:

Hi - I am terrified of what I am about to get into. I did a bit of research and decided I wanted a mobo that could be upgraded. Sounds like the A7N8X - Delux is the board I want. I have a lot of questions. Hopefully, the answers will benefit more people than me. If anyone cannot answer all of the questions, any part will be appreciated.

I noted another WWW site recommended an "E" version of the board. I did not find another reference anywhere. What's the story?

The same board indicated that the BIOS was at 1.3 beta. Now it appears the BIOS is at 2, based, on posts here. Correct?

A friend recommends IBM mobos, but didn't recommend an equivalent. Is there one? Is it possibly better...or what?

I noted that there is commentary on this board with respect to the onboard sound. I intend to go for an ATI All in Wonder board and sound may be of interest at that time. I want a "general" graphics card. So, what is your opinion on the graphics card, and possible problems / conflicts? What is the best sound card? I was reading about 7.1 sound - any comments, kudos or boos (the card - not me)? Any conflicts with the graphics?

Also, as long as I am at it - I read that there could be some problems as far as space goes with respect to placement of heat sinks, fans etc with respect to the CPU and memory. Are these warnings appropriate for this ASUS board.

THANKS!
_________________
I am a newbie at building, moding and overclocking. I need more help than I can give at this time, but I have a sincere interest & hopefully the gutz to do it.

DMW · SirTweaksabit Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 457

Henchman_00 · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 11:39 pm Post subject:

WOW! Thanks.

OK 1, the "E" was mentioned in error, by me. I was wondering what another term meant and confused that a little bit more.

OK the REV2 BOARD

OK I do have an ATI chip set on my old COMPAQ (now you know 2 reasons I want to build). I had to download drivers that Windoze didn't have with every crash - mostly from my "experiments". A pain. I will go with your comments now that I have a common basis of reference.

QN - Off the top of my head, NVidia has a tie to ASUS - so that would be the video card to get and I will eat another PCI slot for the TV in out etc - any recommendations on that one?

Qn -I visited the ASUS WWW and saw that the 478 socket has several P4s that could be of interest. Guess I can go for the 3+ghz chip - but I would prefer to your thoughts before I start to rev up on this one.
ALSO. based on cpu/board needs, what is some easy to install heat sink - passive or active?

I read a little on the audio supplied with the board. ASUS mentions "WinDVD: The world's most popular DVD software supporting 5.1-channel audio and WinRip: MP3 Player / Encoder / Ripper featuring virtual 5.1-channel and surround sound effects." I guess this is the onboard audio mentioned. They also mention 6 channel sound negating the need for a high quality sound card.. The way the cost of this baby is shaping up, I just need the best non-conflicting card.

Qn. Is there a sound card / speaker system recommendation, or commentary, that would go with that set up better than my contemplated 7.1 sound speaker system, (not fully suppoted yet as I recall.)?

In one part of the ASUS site, they referenced PC2700 RAM, then I went to Crucial, and they showed 3200 compatability - which I confirmed at another part of the ASUS site: "The 128-bit TwinBank DDR Memory architecture doubles the DDR 400 (PC3200)" Qn - Got any "super" two sided ram DIMMs recommendations that might go well?

I noted that some PC (cases) BOXes state so many IEEE and USB ports on the front and so many in the back. I know there are 4 USB on the back etc from some of the specs. Please indicate the # of ports on the front configuration and if there is anything that may affect the box I would need.

All in all, the mobo is looking like it is the one I want. THANKS again. It will be several builds and errors before I can achieve guru status as you have. right now the "old lady" is yelling at me as it is late. Will be beack tomorrrow. Again, thanks for your answers, the site,reviews etc.
_________________
I am a newbie at building, moding and overclocking. I need more help than I can give at this time, but I have a sincere interest & hopefully the gutz to do it.

Ishtim · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 7:37 am Post subject:

It looks like you have been doing your homework!

I own the rev. 1004 mobo, and love it! So many bells and whistles it is almost sickening. I noticed you were looking at the audio aspects of the board. The nForce Tray software that is bundled (along with WinDVD for the deluxe ver) makes your PC into a home-office theatre. Dolby 5.1 decoding and fully functioning adjustments such as independant speaker volume make setup easy . It even lets you adjust cross over frequencie for LFE (subwoofer) and also has a speaker setup wizard to help out on your configuration. 5.1 seems to be the "standard" for DVD audio and video at the moment and there are a handful of discrete 6.1 channel movies check out these web pages
www.dtsonline.com & www.dolby.com
But 7.1 is a matrixed sound format the synthesizes the 6th channel into two speakers (i.e. NOT a 7th discrete sound channel) in that unless you are mixing your own audio (George Lucas style) you will only find 6 channel discrete recordings (limited # of releases) and man they are fabulous! You should also consider the speakers / amp setup, they can get really pricey and you thought your wife was yelling at you last night

!

As far as a video card goes, it really depend on $ again (where's the wife?).
I opted fot the MSI GeForce4 Ti-4800SE w/out TIVO for ~$150 as a passifier until the DirectX9 cards come down in price and are tested with DX9 games. It is basically a GF4-Ti4400 with AGP 8x and 128MB DDR ram (fine for my needs). The left over $ I had went for a 19" CRT monitor and Klipsch 5.1 THX speakers (no hearing aids needed here, but my wife tells me I will go deaf!

).

Last but not least, with 6 USB ports you'll want to get a case with 2 front ports so that you don't have to fumble around the back of the machine alot.
_________________
AMD XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.4 (1002.a)
2x 512-PC3200 Mushkin Black
ATI 9800Pro
Klipsch Pro Media
19" CRT

DMW · SirTweaksabit Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 457

Henchman_00 · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 9:39 pm Post subject: Thanks for your reply

I see you have a sense of humor. I do not have a clue as to what I would do with the passive video card, but it certainly has noting to do with an active sport.

I have to digest most of this. I have a hunch I was looking at another card with just about the same alpha numeric designation for a MOBO- one letter off. I MUST BE MORE CAREFUL - or awake when I research. As with DOS, I wear a belt and suspenders - Do you want this board, yes or no, are you sure yes or no. I see where you are like adding a life lione to my endeavor.

_________________
I am a newbie at building, moding and overclocking. I need more help than I can give at this time, but I have a sincere interest & hopefully the gutz to do it.

Ishtim · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 8:04 am Post subject:

DMW,

I was just curious about you setup using the A7N8X board. Can you tell us?
_________________
AMD XP 2500+ Barton
Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.4 (1002.a)
2x 512-PC3200 Mushkin Black
ATI 9800Pro
Klipsch Pro Media
19" CRT

JimBob · TweakNOOB Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Posts: 2

Henchman,

All this research has to end somewhere. Obviously, you're ready to roll your own PC instead of buying what some corporate thinks you need or going with one of the custom shops.

I started building my own about six years ago and have used boards from Epox, Abit and Asus. I like the Asus best, but you have to realize that there is a quantum difference between that first Epox board and my current Asus. This whole business is a moving target. You can do research until you're dead and get exactly nowhere.

Take a deep breath, make a few decisions and get out your credit card. If you really screw up - well, that's what the old RMA is all about.

Find a nice flat spot to work on, collect your screwdrivers and have a beer. The UPS guy will be along before you know it.

Have fun.

Jim

DMW · SirTweaksabit Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 457

a rather incomplete setup at that...money simply does not buy as much as it used to and is more scarce than it used to be....I am currently caseless and making due with air cooling.
just the mobo a GF4Ti4200 a couple of hard drives and some corsair xms3200 (2x256MB) ram.....nothing special...............................................but it's what I can make it do....lol
or rather what I WILL make it do a little later this summer.

I am trying to keep a lid on this project until completion. It will be like nothing else I have seen anyone else try so far.

PS, I would LOVE to do a review for TN on a larger, full tower size case......lol

and THAT...makes #200!